yoshaw
10-03-2006, 05:52 AM
I was reading the new Develop magazine and this is what I found. Very interesting to know there are talented developers out there doing something about ps3 programming rather than talk hours at end about it's difficulty. Cue-in Carmack's outcries of ps3 is hard to develop hour long speeches :roll eyes: But anyways, this is a new studio, signed up with Sony to develop a supposedly AAA game that is based on their proprietary physics engine.
Any ideas what game it's gonna be? :pleased:
Media Molecule: ‘PS3’s not that hard to develop for’
New studio bucks trends with small-scale production team and fast turnaround for new Sony title
Next-gen production has brought with it certain pieces of conventional wisdom. The first is that team sizes need to be big. Second, that many of them need to be owned by publishers. And third: that new formats like the PS3 are a ‘beast’ to deal with. But at new Guildford studio Media Molecule, these rules are fast being proven false.
Formed at the start of the year by the small band of former Lionhead staff that created the Develop Award-nominated Rag Doll Kung Fu, Media Molecule has just signed its first deal, to produce a first party PS3 title for Sony from a new IP-based concept from cradle to working game in just a few months.
Speaking to Develop just as the deal was announced, co-founder Alex Evans explained that “we wanted to prove to the world that we could make a full triple-A console product. “The prevailing wind was all about big teams and how the next generation was going to be massively complicated. We thought that if we started out fresh with enthusiasm and a small group of people that really wanted to make a game, we could do it.”
With just a PC-based concept to start with, a chance to meet with Sony gave the group extra impetus – something that has snowballed beyond just a publishing deal with the production of the team’s own physics-based engine in just a number of months.
“We went into this expecting a programming nightmare, because you hear all these horror stories people would give,” said Dave Smith, chief technology man and fellow co-founder. “But it took us a few days to get our stuff up and running. It’s all been surprisingly easy.”
Added Evans: “There’s some hurdles that I think we’ve been able to cross unexpectedly easy. Perhaps it’s because we’ve got a clean slate. We’ve not got any legacy systems, and we’re not waiting for any middleware people. We’re not using any middleware – not because we hate it, but because we wanted to build our own engine. Middleware is going to get very good for PS3 – and it is now, but back in January it wasn’t so we were as much in the same boat as other people and we were able to exploit that and get up and running really fast.”
On the one hand, it of course makes inevitable sense that a team of talented, driven former Lionhead’ers have managed to switch from PC and 360 focused production to PS3 coding so easily. But on the other its good news to those smaller outfits and teams, both inside and outside of in-house and bigger independent structures that next-gen need not be too unwieldy.
It’s also good news for publisher Sony, which arguably needs some goodwill from the industry.
STRONG SECTOR
But while the format holder may not be part of the production equation for others, what matters for other burgeoning small teams is the ripeness of the market.
“There’s loads of rich pickings at the moment,” said Evans, pointing out the encouragment areas like Xbox Live Arcade are providing smaller units of people. “There is an opportunity for smaller teams. It depends on what those teams can do, of course. When you’ve got 100 people there’s an averaging process that goes on – they will make a good game under solid leadership. But when you’ve got ten people, or 20 or 30 people, the individuals make a lot more difference.”
Source: Develop magazine, issue66
Any ideas what game it's gonna be? :pleased:
Media Molecule: ‘PS3’s not that hard to develop for’
New studio bucks trends with small-scale production team and fast turnaround for new Sony title
Next-gen production has brought with it certain pieces of conventional wisdom. The first is that team sizes need to be big. Second, that many of them need to be owned by publishers. And third: that new formats like the PS3 are a ‘beast’ to deal with. But at new Guildford studio Media Molecule, these rules are fast being proven false.
Formed at the start of the year by the small band of former Lionhead staff that created the Develop Award-nominated Rag Doll Kung Fu, Media Molecule has just signed its first deal, to produce a first party PS3 title for Sony from a new IP-based concept from cradle to working game in just a few months.
Speaking to Develop just as the deal was announced, co-founder Alex Evans explained that “we wanted to prove to the world that we could make a full triple-A console product. “The prevailing wind was all about big teams and how the next generation was going to be massively complicated. We thought that if we started out fresh with enthusiasm and a small group of people that really wanted to make a game, we could do it.”
With just a PC-based concept to start with, a chance to meet with Sony gave the group extra impetus – something that has snowballed beyond just a publishing deal with the production of the team’s own physics-based engine in just a number of months.
“We went into this expecting a programming nightmare, because you hear all these horror stories people would give,” said Dave Smith, chief technology man and fellow co-founder. “But it took us a few days to get our stuff up and running. It’s all been surprisingly easy.”
Added Evans: “There’s some hurdles that I think we’ve been able to cross unexpectedly easy. Perhaps it’s because we’ve got a clean slate. We’ve not got any legacy systems, and we’re not waiting for any middleware people. We’re not using any middleware – not because we hate it, but because we wanted to build our own engine. Middleware is going to get very good for PS3 – and it is now, but back in January it wasn’t so we were as much in the same boat as other people and we were able to exploit that and get up and running really fast.”
On the one hand, it of course makes inevitable sense that a team of talented, driven former Lionhead’ers have managed to switch from PC and 360 focused production to PS3 coding so easily. But on the other its good news to those smaller outfits and teams, both inside and outside of in-house and bigger independent structures that next-gen need not be too unwieldy.
It’s also good news for publisher Sony, which arguably needs some goodwill from the industry.
STRONG SECTOR
But while the format holder may not be part of the production equation for others, what matters for other burgeoning small teams is the ripeness of the market.
“There’s loads of rich pickings at the moment,” said Evans, pointing out the encouragment areas like Xbox Live Arcade are providing smaller units of people. “There is an opportunity for smaller teams. It depends on what those teams can do, of course. When you’ve got 100 people there’s an averaging process that goes on – they will make a good game under solid leadership. But when you’ve got ten people, or 20 or 30 people, the individuals make a lot more difference.”
Source: Develop magazine, issue66